My Rank 1 WPM - “Russia - Chukchi (Eskimo)”

[Shari]

As far as I know, I have no recent Eskimo ancestors. However, I do have eight Native American matches - Choles - Chiapas, Mexico, rank 11; Salashan - British Colombia, rank 20; Salashan, rank 21; Alaska Athabaskan, rank 24, Minnesota, ranks 43, 46 and 47; and Cherokee. (My mother showed U.S. Cherokee Admixed, rank 25. The Cherokee test wasn’t available until after my test had been taken.)

Also, my Mega Populations ranks 1 and 2 are Iberian American and American Indian. Along with this, I have 4 World Population Matches of Mexican and 22 of Central and South America, which certainly must indicate ample Native American ancestry.

From http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/people/e.rockhill/mphil.pdf - “Genetic structure and affinities among indigenous populations of northeast Siberia: a literature review,” by Elena Rockhill, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, pages 45, 69-71:
“...Chukchi are somewhat closely related to Native Americans...”
 “...Sequence diversity analyses based on haplogroup A sequences suggest that Native Americans and Chukchi originated from a single migration to Beringia, probably from east Central Siberia. This migration may have taken place approximately 30,000 or 43,000 years ago...”

From https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/native-americans-descended-single-ancestral-group-dna-study-confirms - “Native Americans Descended From a Single Ancestral Group, DNA Study Confirms” - By Liese Greensfelder on April 28, 2009 in Science & Technology:
“...Our work provides strong evidence that, in general, Native Americans are more closely related to each other than to any other existing Asian populations, except those that live at the very edge of the Bering Strait,” said Kari Britt Schroeder, a lecturer at the University of California, Davis, and the first author on the paper describing the study...”

From https://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/chukchis.shtml - “The Chukchis”:
“...In structure, Chukchi is an incorporate language. The Paleo-Asiatic languages are believed to be primordially related to the languages of the American Indians. When a land connection existed, before the rift that is the present-day Bering Straits, the ancestors of the Indians migrated to what is now America. This hypothesis has many supporters...”

[TK238]

I would be interested to understand the Chukchi one too. It was #2 on my WPM, along with Florida Native American and Michigan Native American.

[Shari]

Hi TK238,
From what I understand, this is because of our Native American DNA.

[TK238]

Hey Shari,

That's what I was thinking. Have you taken any other DNA tests to gain greater insight?

[Shari]

Hi TK238,
No, I haven’t taken any other DNA tests to date. The theory that Native Americans arrived in the Americas by crossing the ancient Bering land bridge has been very popular in recent years. This has been challenged as not proven and incomplete by Donald N. Yates and Teresa A. Yates in their 2014 book entitled, CHEROKEE DNA STUDIES - REAL PEOPLE WHO PROVED THE GENETICISTS WRONG.


I posted the Chukchi comments before I began reading this book. The authors noted on page 129, “...It can neither be proved true nor decided false that ancestors of American Indians crossed a hypothetical Bering land bridge at some time in the unknown past.” 


From the Introduction regarding the research covered in their book - “...It recounts the surprising experiences of 119 men and women who participated in DNA Consultants’ Cherokee DNA Project from 2003 to 2014...”

The authors went into great detail about the mitochondrial DNA test results of the 119 subjects, but also delved into the early origins of Native Americans indicated by this research.


I’m not knowledgable enough to give you a good review of this book although I am greatly enjoying reading it. It is quite technical in the interpretation of the mt DNA used in this Cherokee project.

But my best, very generalized opinion of the book is that the authors suggest that that Native Americans are more strongly of European origin than of Asian. They also suggest that Native Americans are very diverse in their origins and give much evidence that many of their early ancestors arrived in the Americas by traveling across the oceans.

All I can say is that this book is well worth reading if you have Native American DNA of any kind.